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"The last time I saw my son, Lorenzo was a little kid and I could carry him around."

Miss Betancourt, a presidential candidate when she was kidnapped, vowed to become the country's president and free the remaining hostages held by Marxist rebels.

With at least 25 political hostages and hundreds of Colombians still being held for ransom by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc), she said their release had become her new mission.

"I am going to work for those hostages still being held," she said. "Not just to get them home, but to get them home soonest."

Miss Betancourt had hailed Wednesday's mission to free her and 14 fellow hostages as a "perfect operation". Colombian soldiers, posing as members of a non-government organisation, had flown the hostages to freedom in a helicopter.